The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has responded to reports of a national grid collapse on Saturday, referring to the incident as a “temporary grid disturbance.”
This reaction follows the grid’s third breakdown within the week. The collapse occurred early Saturday, resulting in widespread blackouts across several states.
According to data from the Nigerian System Operator’s portal (niggrid.org), the grid recorded a total shutdown, showing zero Megawatts (MW) at 8:16 am.
All 22 generation companies (GenCos) were offline at the time of the report.
This marks the eighth grid disturbance in 2024, with two other collapses occurring earlier this week.
In response, TCN’s General Manager of Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, explained that while a section of a current transformer at the 330kV Jebba Transmission Substation had exploded, power has since been restored.
“The Transmission Company of Nigeria hereby states that the national grid experienced a temporary disturbance at about 8:15 am, today, 19th Oct. 2024.
“According to the report from the NCC, the bus section of a current transformer exploded at 330kV Jebba Transmission Substation and as expected, the protection system was activated, and this promptly opened the busbars to curtail the explosion, thereby preventing outbreak of fire and further damage to adjacent equipment.
“The action of the protection system led to a temporary disturbance on the grid.
“Our engineers at Jebba have successfully carried out switchings, isolating the faulty current transformer. They have equally reconfigured the busbar arrangement, restoring power supply to the station, and other parts of the grid,” the statement read.